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Centre for Ethics, Law and Public Affairs

"Re-Inventing the Will: An Exercise in Realphilosophie"

Abstract: A recognitive volitional practice is a practice in which a person is recognised as having a will in a matter. Since at least the 4^th century AD/CE, recognitive volitional practices have played a central role in criminal, civil and canon law, and hence in the texture of civic life and in defining the limits of legal agency. Recognitive volitional practices have also periodically changed, sometimes radically. I reconstruct one extended episode from medieval European history in which recognitive volitional practices were reinvented. The particular recognitive volitional practice that emerged in the latter part of the first millennium is hard for us to make sense of, in part because it was so inclusive. My aim is to make sense of the fact that it made sense at the time. I use this historical and hermeneutic exercise to gain leverage on the mode of being (the ontology) of the will. I apply my findings in connection with a contemporary development: the reinvention of recognitive volitional practices mandated by the 2018 revision to the Civil Code of Per煤.